
Those in support of preserving MPavilion 10 designed by Pritzker Prize Laureate Tadao Ando.
In a world of fast-paced consumerism, how do we assign the value of something?
Is it only in its utility or economic return? Or might it also reside in stillness, contemplation, and the quiet resonance of form and space?
Tadao Ando’s MPavilion - his first and only built work in Australia - was never conceived as a monument. It does not demand attention. Instead, it stands as a meditation on geometry, light, and material. A concrete structure, cut through by a void, framing the world beyond. It asks for almost nothing in return - only that we slow down, linger, and perhaps - look inward.
Photographed by Pier Carthew, this series documents the MPavilion in its dormant state - caught in a moment of stillness between use and uncertainty. This modest structure, realised with extraordinary precision and intention, is now at risk of being lost to time, dismantled barely two years after its completion.
While the MPavilion program was always temporal by design, this pavilion represents something more: a dialogue between the people of Melbourne and one of the most influential architects of our time. A space for discourse and the coming together of people, in the cultural context of increasing polarity. It situates the city - however briefly - within the broader continuum of architectural thought and culture. To erase it would be to cut short a conversation barely begun.
The movement to preserve MPavilion 10 is a call for reflection: on how we assign value, on how we care for our cultural artefacts, and on what it means to sustain - not just environmentally, but intellectually, emotionally, spatially.
To allow this building to quietly disappear, without pause or protest, would be a loss - not only for the city of Melbourne, but for the international architectural community.
-
Below is a summary of those in support of preserving MPavilion 10 designed by Pritzker Prize Laureate Tadao Ando.
Jasmine Placentino
PARABOLICA
Founder - Preserve the Pavilion
Benjamin Pitman
PARABOLICA / Studio Nine Architects
Pier Carthew
Photographer
John Pawson
David Gianotten
Managing Partner – OMA Architect, and designer of MPavilion 2017
John Denton
Denton Corker Marshall
1996 Gold Medal Recipient
Norman Day
Norman Day + Associates
John Gollings
Photographer
Rodney Eggleston
Founding Director - March Studio
Clare Kennedy
Director - Five Mile Radius
Susi Leeton
Susi Leeton Architecture + Interiors
Gilad Ritz + Jean-Paul Ghougassian
Ritz & Ghougassian
Scott Eldridge + Jeremy Anderson
Eldridge Anderson
Jeff Provan
Director - Neometro
Elizabeth Schiavello
Photographer
Jack Lovel
Photographer